Picture the villain we all love to hate emerging from a dark shadow that sweeps across the galaxy, delivering unapologetic devastation in his wake. This Dark Lord is evil, vicious and unpredictable. If small business computing were the galaxy far, far away, Cryptolocker would be the villain dressed in black. A strain of ransomware (malware that encrypts your data and locks you out of your system until you pay a ransom), Cryptolocker sabotages businesses and individuals through phishing emails and attachments. One click and Crypto is in the building.

According to Kaspersky Lab, the number of infections is estimated “in the five or six digits.” If backups do not exist or if they are located on the server that gets hit, victims lose everything – sometimes even if they pay their Bitcoin ransom within the 72 to 100 hours typically asked for by malware saboteurs.

If you feel like taking your data home in a briefcase and hiding it under your bed at night, hold on. 3Points’ solution identifies threats like Cryptolocker, protecting small businesses with enterprise-grade security.

3Points has adopted SonicWALL as its standard to protect clients. The Dell product (we adopted it in 2012, the same year Dell bought SonicWALL) is a total environment security solution. It scans for Cryptolocker and other routine traffic inside and outside the network based on your applications and pre-determined rules.

SonicWALL earned a coveted spot on the 3Points Tech Team’s standards list largely because of its comprehensive nature; it goes far beyond protecting the network at the point of entry where viruses, spam, phishing and data leaks cross the firewall. Even if a virus does barge through the network, SonicWALL jumps in between a workstation or server and the malware attacker. Frank Anderson, 3Points’ newly appointed director of operations, calls the solution “unique security” and says that other vendors are playing catch up. SonicWALL has the ability to block TOR traffic (free software that enables anonymous communication). That’s big. TOR was first designed to protect the personal privacy of users. Unfortunately, malware attackers use TOR’s convoluted web of relays to hide their identity and location. Dell firewalls block 4.7 billion intrusions like these daily in real time, according to the company.

Nothing, however, is one hundred percent foolproof. The reason: Viruses are constantly evolving; attackers are creating them and making them smarter, posing a moving target for businesses. Kind of like the beast in a sci-fi movie that grows four heads to replace the two that just got lopped off. That’s malware. Once defeated, another iteration comes back meaner and bigger and stronger than ever. Small businesses, though, are not defenseless.

Besides SonicWALL, it’s important to have a great backup solution that includes both image and file level backup. In other words, if Cryptolocker morphs into a new and improved virus and successfully bypasses SonicWALL, then you have a backup to avoid data loss.

SonicWall is easy to launch. A 3Points technician configures the security solution to work in the background of your network. For maintenance clients, 3Points monitors security continuously. SonicWALL applies to all industries and may be installed in any environment for greater security on three major fronts: network, mobility and email. From there, no news is good news. “The best comments for a device like this is that our clients have no issues,” said Frank Anderson, 3Points’ newly appointed director of operations. “Once they purchase and install it, they don’t have to worry about it. It’s seamless to their operation. It sits in the background and does its job.”

All small businesses should be concerned about security. Cyber-attackers and bots are real and they prey on smaller, more vulnerable organizations. SonicWALL offers serious defense. Anderson likens it to having a bouncer inside the bar making sure everybody is behaving and a bouncer outside the bar checking IDs so that fiends like Cryptolocker and other malware attackers are dealt with swiftly and confidently.

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https://www.3points.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Megabit-StarWars3.jpg287620wpengine/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/3-Points-logo.pngwpengine2015-12-11 12:47:402017-04-27 16:41:30Conquering the Dark Lord of the Small Business Galaxy